Donald Vance

Donald Vance is an American Navy veteran who was held in detention at Camp Cropper, the United States military's maximum-security detention site in Baghdad for 97 days beginning in April 2006. On December 18, 2006, Vance filed suit against the US government and the former US Secretary of Defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld, on grounds that he was tortured and his rights of habeas corpus were violated.

He won the 2007 Ron Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize for coming forward with his story on April 4, 2007.

Background

Vance was a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago when he went to Iraq as a security contractor. Vance became an unpaid informant for the F.B.I., passing them evidence that seemed to suggest that the Iraqi security firm at which he worked might be engaged in illegal weapons trading, particularly to officials from the Iraqi Interior Ministry.

However, when American soldiers raided the firm, he was treated as a suspect. Another American who worked for the company, but had resigned over the alleged weapons trading, was also detained. Vance was held for three months at Camp Cropper, America’s maximum security prison site in Baghdad.

Incarceration

Vance claims he was subject to interrogations, inhumane treatment and sleep deprivation techniques during his time at Camp Cropper. A Pentagon spokesperson, First Lt. Lea Ann Fracasso, claimed the men had been "treated fair and humanely", and that there was no record of either man complaining about his treatment. Though officials were informed by his F.B.I. handler that he was an informant after his first three weeks of detention, they decided that he still "posed a threat". He took notes on his imprisonment and smuggled them out in a Bible.

Although denied legal representation at his detainment hearing on 24 April, he was allowed to attend it because he was an American. Two weeks into his detention, he was allowed to phone his fiancee in Chicago, who had already informed her Congressional representative of his apparent disappearance. He wrote ten letters home, one of which arrived in November 2006 dated 17 July.

After three months, officials decided to release him after further review of his case.

Legal case

On December 18, 2006, Vance filed suit against the US government and the former US Secretary of Defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld, on grounds that he was tortured and his rights of habeas corpus were violated. He is being represented by Arthur Loevy, Jon Loevy and Michael Kanovitz of the law firm Loevy & Loevy. His suit against the US government and Donald Rumsfeld allege that he was subject to the following unlawful procedures:

1. false arrest
2. unlawful detention
3. unlawful search and seizure
4. denial of right to counsel in interrogations - coerced statements
5. denial of Sixth Amendment right to counsel
6. denial of right to confront adverse witnesses
7. denial of right to present witnesses and evidence, and to have exculpatory evidence disclosed
8. unlawful conditions of detention
9. denial of necessary medical care
10. denial of property without due process

On September 21, 2007, Vance testified before a Senate Democratic Policy Committee on abuses in private security and reconstruction in Iraq during a hearing on Capitol Hill. He spoke about several events such as Shield Group Security brokering a deal with the South Korean government for small arms. He also spoke about Shield Group selling small arms to people operating within the U.S State Dept. During the proceeding Senator Byron Dorgan who chaired the committee asked Vance to turn over documents reflecting these weapon sales. Vance stated he would do so and also include hundreds of other pages including emails, photos and other documents reflecting SGS's criminal activities.

On September 26, 2007 during an Appropriations Committee hearing, Senator Byron Dorgan asked Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates to investigate the detention of Donald Vance. Senator Dorgan also relayed during the committee hearing that he has submitted a request to the inspector generals office for a complete investigation. Sen. Dorgan called Vance's detention by the U.S military "frightening".

External links

• Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing: Abuses in Private Security and Reconstruction Contracting in Iraq: Ensuring Accountability, Protecting Whistleblowers, September 21, 2007
• Vance v. Rumsfeld, Nos. 10-1687, 10-2442 (7th Cir. August 8, 2011)